Identity Crisis (DC Comics)

File:Identity Crisis 7.jpg

Identity Crisis #7, the conclusion. Art by Michael Turner.

Identity Crisis is a seven-issue comic book miniseries published by DC Comics in 2004, written by Brad Meltzer and drawn by Rags Morales. It was one of DC's top-selling series throughout its run, but attracted controversy for its high-stakes storytelling, especially when it drastically retconned aspects of DC's Silver Age. These attempts to add modern excitement and drama to "old-fashioned" characters were widely considered sensationalist exploitation of beloved characters for commercial purposes by some critics, while others hailed the work as a masterpiece that updated DC's characters successfully. There is rumor to be a sequel unrelated to Infinite Crisis called Identity Crisis 2, although this is probably Infinite Crisis.

Meaning of title of Identity Crisis

The title of the series plays on several ideas:

• the importance of and consequences of exposure of superhero secret identities
• the unknown identity of the murderer
• the struggle of the protagonists to determine their own identities and deal with the consequences of past actions as well as recent tragedies; see identity crisis (psychology)
• Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis
• Jack Drake, the father of Tim Drake (alias Robin) dies in Identity Crisis. The story arc of Batman #455–457 (October–December 1990), in which Tim deals with the death of his mother and the crippling of his father, was also called "Identity Crisis".

Plot summary of Identity Crisis

Sue Dibny, the Elongated Man's wife, is murdered, her body horribly burned. The DC superhero community rallies to find the murderer.

Early suspicion rests on Doctor Light, as it is revealed that he had raped Sue Dibny years earlier in the JLA Satellite. It is also revealed that the Atom, Black Canary, Hawkman, the Elongated Man, the Flash (Barry Allen), Zatanna, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), and Green Arrow had mind-wiped and altered the personality of Doctor Light after his assault on Sue. The superheroes attempt to capture Doctor Light, who has hired Deathstroke to protect him. In the ensuing fight with Deathstroke, Doctor Light regains his memory and escapes.

The murderer next apparently tries to hang Jean Loring, the ex-wife of the Atom. The attempt fails. Next, the murderer sends a death threat to Lois Lane (Superman's wife). Finally, a hit is put together by Captain Boomerang on Jack Drake, Robin's (Tim Drake's) father. However, Jack Drake finds a note warning him of the attempt on his life, as well as a gun, both sent by some unknown party. When Jack Drake shoots Captain Boomerang, he manages to unleash a razor boomerang at Drake. The two end up killing each other.

As the investigation continues, Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond) is killed attempting to interrogate some supervillains when the Shadow-Thief stabs him with Shining Knight's enchanted sword, breaching his skin. Approaching critical mass, Firestorm flies into the sky and explodes.

Bolt is seriously injured in a shootout by two thugs transporting Lex Luthor's battlesuit.

Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) reveals to the Flash (Wally West) that Batman had walked in on the heroes mind-wiping Doctor Light. When Batman tried to prevent them from mind-wiping Doctor Light, they mind-wiped Batman as well.

In the end, investigation by Batman and the autopsy of Sue Dibny's body reveals that Sue Dibny had been murdered by someone with access to the Atom's technology. It is concluded that Jean Loring was the murderer, and she had faked a murder attempt against herself. Her motive was to get the Atom to return to her. She was consequently committed to Arkham Asylum.

Notable changes and consequences of Identity Crisis

• The Calculator, formerly a technology-using supervillain with a rather silly costume, becomes a formidable information broker. Indeed, he is now essentially the villain counterpart of the Oracle.
• Deathstroke went from being an adversary of the Teen Titans to a threat that now spans the entire DC world.
• The Atom quits the JLA and superheroics in general.
• Firehawk retires from superheroics as well.
• Doctor Light regains his skills and plagues the Teen Titans and those who mind-wiped him, especially Green Arrow.
• Captain Boomerang's son becomes the new Captain Boomerang after his father's death.
• Tim Drake is now an orphan living in Bludhaven.
• Batman eventually learned of the mindwipe and the Justice League broke up under the strain.

Notable retcons of Identity Crisis

The following are notable retcons of Identity Crisis:

• Doctor Light's previous ineffectualness was not due to his own foolishness, but rather, because of the effects of the JLA's attempt to alter his personality.
• Green Arrow and Hawkman's mutual antagonism was no longer primarily rooted in their differing political philosophies, but instead on their opposing opinions of what should have been done to Dr. Light.
• Previously, it was determined that in the post-Crisis DCU, only a handful of other heroes knew the secret identity of Batman and Superman (or in the case of Superman, that he had a secret identity at all). Now it seems to have reverted back so that virtually every hero in the JLA knows who they actually are.
• Villains like Dr. Destiny and Brainwave who could easily discover the League's identities failed to do so, not because they didn't think of it, but that the League erased their memories.

Unanswered questions left by Identity Crisis

• Who is the mother of Captain Boomerang's son?
  • Note: in issue #3, a National Enquirer headline says "Golden Glider and Boomerang had a Love Child! (and left him [for] adoption!)" The cover appears fully visible in the next issue. However, Boomerang's son has super speed, thus calling this headline into question (on the assumption that Boomerang's son must have inherited his super speed from one of his parents).
  • UPDATE: In issue #224 of "The Flash", the original Captain Boomerang is thrown into the future as a result of the efforts of Zoom and Professor Zoom to torture Wally West where he meets a woman that may or may not be Meloni Thawne, mother of Bart Allen's Kid Flash and descendent of Professor Zoom. It is likely that this is the son's mother, which would explain Owen's super speed.
• What were Dr. Moon and Phobia up to?
  • They seem to have developed into a serial killer couple of other supervillains, not unlike Myra Hindley and Ian Brady.
• Will Jean Loring be forced by Arkham inmates to reveal the identities of the DC heroes?
  • She became the next Eclipso and escapes Arkham without sharing her information.
• Will Batman discover the mind-wipe?
  • It is suggested by Green Arrow that this issue is a not a case of "if" but "when", and it is revealed in Countdown to Infinite Crisis that Batman, as a detective, indeed worked out what has been done to his mind. Whether or not he will choose to disclose the information is a matter of time, as when he figured this out is uncertain.
    • In The OMAC Project it was discovered he created a spy satellite Brother I to spy on metahumans partially because of the mindwipe done to him.
• Green Arrow implies to the Flash (Wally West) that even Batman has had other members of the League mindwiped, including Arrow himself. Is this true? If so, then who was mindwiped?
• Why did Dr. Light hire Deathstroke to protect him? He didn't remember Sue Dibny's rape since he had been mindwiped, so he had no reason to believe that the League would come after him.
  • When Dr. Light teleports (crawling) onto the old Injustice Gang satellite, he's begging for help, for which he seems desperate, and the first thing he says is that the Calculator sent him. Given that superheroes have already been interrogating villains, it's not at all unlikely that the Calculator might have tipped Light off to the fact he was a suspect, especially given that the Calculator himself stands to benefit from whatever aid Light will need. Additionally, it's completely plausible that Light would have a long-standing relationship with the Calculator, given he would need to have ready information on the many, many very powerful superheroes he has as enemies--something he's obviously aware of if he hired someone as utterly ruthless and deadly as Deathstroke.

The following loose threads have recently been answered in Teen Titans v3 #20–23 (March–June 2005):

• Why did Bolt attack the owners of Lex Luthor's body armor?
  • He was hired to return the stolen body suit to Luthor.
• What happened to Luthor's body armor?
  • Another supervillain, the Electrocutioner, tried to get it back to Luthor, but he was beaten to it by the villain Warp. Luthor now has the armor in his possession.
• Doctor Light's memory of what happened on the satellite were restored. What will he do with that knowledge?
  • In an act of revenge, he tried to kill the Teen Titans, thus taking a piece of the Justice League of America's members' lives, just like they had done with him when they lobotomized him after raping Sue Dibny, years ago.

Continuity errors in Identity Crisis

• Firehawk tells her father over the phone that she is quitting the superhero life. Firehawk's father was killed years previously in Hawkworld #13. This may or may not have been her Human father.
• Green Arrow was one of the superheroes who voted to mind-wipe Doctor Light. Green Arrow resigned from the Justice League in Justice League of America #181 and reiterated his resignation in Justice League of America #182. Therefore, if Green Arrow was considered to be a League member at the time, the mind-wipe must have occurred before then. However, this issue must have occurred after Justice League of America #187, in which Zatanna adopted her new costume, and before New Teen Titans #3, in which Doctor Light first decided to attack the Titans. At this time, Green Arrow was not a Justice League member.
• Deathstroke is shown attempting to override Green Lantern Kyle Rayner's power ring. However, it has been established in earlier comics that Rayner's ring only accepts commands from Kyle and like kin. No matter how much brainpower Deathstroke has, he shouldn't be able to use the ring.
  • It's worth pointing out that Deathstroke failed to override the ring. He probably didn't know that the ring wouldn't respond to him. However, since Kyle was in pain from 4 broken fingers, Deathstroke may have been able to interfere with Kyle's attempt to use the ring.
• In issue #2, the quillions of Slade's sword are straight and pointing up next to the blade. In issue #3, the quillions are curved and pointing down, protecting Slade's fingers.
• In issue #1, Ralph orders Firehawk to fly him home as soon as he learns that Sue is in danger. Firehawk protests that doing so would burn his hands, but he orders her to do it anyway. As Ralph races to find Sue, there is no visible evidence that his gloves were burned. Two days later at Sue's funeral, there are several clear shots of Ralph's bare hands. They were not bandaged, nor were there any sign of burns.

Criticisms of Identity Crisis

These are criticisms which have been raised by fans.

Mature Themes

• Identity Crisis has come under some fire for its use of characters known to children to tell a sometimes disturbing, adult story. The Sue Dibny rape scene in particular has been criticised, with many commentators pointing out that none of the issues featured any kind of "Suggested for mature readers" advisory on the cover, and therefore could be sold to children familiar with many of the characters through television cartoons.

Melodrama

• Revealing that Sue was also pregnant when she was killed has been called a cheap, almost cliché way to milk emotion from the reader.

Misogyny

• Deathstroke's method of subduing Black Canary, having a bondage mask zipped over her head to prevent her from using her Canary Cry and then having her hands handcuffed behind her back to prevent her from removing said mask, has been accused of being misogynistic by many fans.
• Sue Dibny's rape has been criticised as mere sensationalism and unnecessary to the plot and contributes the comic book stereotype of women as victims in comics, the so-called "Girlfriend-in-Refrigerator Syndrome". [1] Others have pointed out that it was deeply tied to the story's theme.
• Since Jean was the one who broke up her marriage to the Atom because she couldn't deal with his double life as a hero, and it had been long established that he'd have her back in an instant, it struck many as an insult to women's relationship with men and with female friends that Jean would lash out at Sue and mastermind a plot to get Ray back when she could have just asked him.
• Jean Loring's mental breakdown has been accused of being spontaneous and unjustified, mostly because Jean's history of mental illness can only be seen in a minor Justice League story from the 1970's in which Jean was driven mad by sub-microscopic beings, a story largely unknown and inaccesible to modern readers. [2]

Detective Work

• The idea of having a plausible and soluble murder mystery in a superhero universe has been criticized, since concrete evidence and analysis becomes uncertain in a world filled with magic and unexplainable superpowers, despite the characters' frequent certainty that their theories are correct. [3]
• Dr. Mid-Nite's autopsy of Sue Dibny, in which he deduces that Dr. Light could not have killed her, put dramatic weight on flawed medical reasoning and generally lacks knowledge of human anatomy. [4]

Other Criticisms

• Some fans were annoyed by the fact that the most important plot point, the mind-wipe, had nothing to do with the murders.
• Many felt that even a foe like Deathstroke would be incapable taking on so many JLA members by himself.
• If Jean only wanted to "endanger" Sue Dibny and not actually kill her, why take along a flamethrower, which is hardly a non-lethal weapon?

Logic criticisms of various plot points in Identity Crisis

• How could Jean Loring be locked up in Arkham Asylum? Given due process, she could only be locked up after a trial, and in any such trial, the superheroes' secret identities would be revealed.
  • Note that, in the DC Universe, it has been established that superheroes and villains can testify on trial without revealing their true identities (as in the "Joker vs. Batman" case, and in Deathstroke's trial (which references the Joker/Batman one on this point.)
  • Also, due process only requires a trial before an involuntary incarceration. As her husband, Atom could quietly have Jean committed without a trial.
• Why would the heroes of DC Universe allow Jean Loring, who knows the secret identity of virtually every hero in the JLA, to be locked up in Arkham Asylum, where some of the most notorious villains of the DC Universe are incarcerated? Note also that the fact that all JLA members know each other's secret identities (and share them with their loved ones) was retconned away years ago; in particular, how Loring knew about Jack Drake is a mystery, given Robin's unwillingness to share his identity even with the Teen Titans. (It's possible that the Calculator somehow found out and told her, but this is unlikely and not shown.)
  • Not an answer, but more of an observation: Atom brought her to Arkham Asylum. Afterwards, he quickly became despondent and left his JLA communication device behind him. Soon afterwards, Jean merged with the black diamond and becomes the new Eclipso.
  • Robin's identity was revealed to members of Young Justice, which includes Superboy, Wonder Girl II, and Impulse, during the World Without Young Justice crossover (Young Justice #44, Impulse #85, Robin #101, Superboy #99, Young Justice #45). In an issue of the current Teen Titans (2003) series, however, the former Young Justice members were unaware of the death of Robin's father. This could be explained that they did not know Jack Drake and Robin were related, or as an oversight of the writer.
• Batman was okay with letting the Martian Manhunter mind-wipe the White Martians in the start of Grant Morrison's run on JLA. Why was he so upset about the League doing the same to Doctor Light?
  • Additionally, it was the altering of Light's mind, not the wiping of the memory, that so offended Batman.
  • It was later revealed that Batman protested against mind-wiping the White Martians and preferred to send them into the Phantom Zone.
  • The White Martians' minds were altered as well or they would have been crazed murderers anyways given their inherently sadistic nature. Also, the altering of their minds were far more intrusive than Light's and Batman wasn't anywhere near as mad as he was at the mind-altering of Dr. Light.
  • Martian Manhunter was a policeman in his home world and in Mars it was a usual punishment to mindwipe criminals and because the white martians were from Mars it was within his jurisdiction. JLA was not part of the justice system of Earth and so they had no right to mindwipe Dr. Light without a trial.
• Batman seemed to take great glee in the altering of various Arkham inmates' minds in a JLA story that precedes Identity Crisis.
• Why didn't the League alter the minds of even greater foes like the Ultra-Humanite or Gorilla Grodd?

• It is unclear when or how Batman discovered that his mind had been tampered with, but it must have occurred very recently. In the "Emperor Joker" storyline, Batman's memory was almost completely wiped clear and then restored although fragmented. In a recent JLA storyline, he takes an oath to immediately disclose any personal information that may be a threat to the league. Lastly, in recent issues of the Batman series, he claims to want to seem less threatening to other superheroes.

• Why is it that the final reconstruction has Jean coming to full size in the Dibny's house, which should have left signs that she was there to all the magical, scientific, microscopic, etc. scans done, but no such sign was found?
  • A sign of Jean may have been found, but she was believed to be a good friend of Sue so the evidence was likely dismissed.

• Ray Palmer gave Jean a crossbow for protection, which would be of minimal use against an enemy of the type she was believed to be in danger from. A gun or even a teleporter would make more sense.

• Since Firehawk's powers make her glow uncontrollably, she is not a sensible character to send on a nighttime stakeout.

Collection and Related Stories

DC Comics reprinted the entire Identity Crisis mini-series in April 2005 with re-colored covers. [5]

A hardcover collection (ISBN 1401206883) due in September 2005. Bonus features for the hardcover edition include a commentary by Meltzer and Morales, the rest of the creative team talking about their favorite moments and a look at Morales's sketchbook. [6]

The Crisis of Conscience storyline from JLA #115-120 shows the breakdown of relationships within the Justice League of America over events that occurred in Identity Crisis.

In 2005, DC is publishing several mini-series under the umbrella title Countdown to Infinite Crisis which will lead up to Infinite Crisis. These stories, to an extent, constitute a sequel to Identity Crisis (with further reference to 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths) and are expected to continue in the same vein of controversial storytelling that marked the earlier series.

External Links

• Brad Meltzer's website
• Interview with Meltzer on The Sound of Young America: MP3 Link